The Caravan Returns Home......
Cholistan. Cholistan Desert (Urdu: صحرائے چولستان), also locally known as Rohi) sprawls thirty kilometers from Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan and covers an area of 16,000 km². It adjoins the Thar Desert extending over to Sindh and into India.
The word Cholistan is derived from the Turkish word Chol, which means Desert. Cholistan thus means Land of the Desert. The people of Cholistan lead a semi-nomadic life, moving from one place to another in search of water and fodder for their animals. At one time there were 400 forts in the area and archaeological finds around the Darawar Fort, the only place with a perennial waterhole.
The forts here were built at 29 km intervals, which probably served as guard posts for the camel caravan routes. They are all in ruins now, and you can see that they were built with double walls of gypsum blocks and mud. Some of them date back to 1000 BC, and were destroyed and rebuilt many times.
The Desert also has an Annual Jeep Rally, known as Annual Cholistan Jeep Rally.
